According to Peter Quantrill, director general of the British International Freight Association, it was "hardly surprising" to hear the recent news that the U.S. has delayed new rules requiring all cargo containers entering the U.S. to be security scanned prior to departure from overseas for two more years, amid questions over whether this is the best way to protect U.S. ports.

Organizations around the world lose an estimated 5 percent of their annual revenues to occupational fraud, according to a survey of certified fraud examiners who investigated cases between January 2012 and December 2013. Applied to the estimated 2013 gross world product, this figure translates to a potential total fraud loss of more than $3.5tr.

There's a custom in Washington that U.S. defense contractors don't talk trash about their competitors, at least not in public. After fiercely competing for multibillion-dollar Pentagon contracts, the winner often placates the loser with a piece of the action. When Lockheed Martin was awarded the contract to build the F-22 fighter jet, it hired Northrop Grumman to build the plane's radar. Boeing won the contract to build the Air Force's KC-46 tanker plane and asked Northrop and Raytheon to contribute key components. Everyone ends up happy. It's how it’s always been done.

"There are some horrible working conditions; kids as young as seven making surgical instruments; people losing limbs. It's horrendous," says Mahmoud Bhutta, consultant surgeon and founder of the British Medical Association's (BMA) Medical Fair and Ethical Trade Group, established in 2007. "Many of the companies [which supply the NHS] have been burying their heads in the sand."

In a recent decision affecting ocean freight operators, the International Maritime Organization's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) adopted amendments to the MARPOL Convention to set a date for the implementation of "Tier III" standards within emission control areas (ECAs) and to make the IMO Member State Audit Scheme mandatory.